Redpoint e.ventures raises $130M for Brazil tech

In its first fund dedicated to Brazilian tech companies, the early-stage VC firm gets of the ground

Redpoint e.ventures, a Brazilian VC firm created by Redpoint Ventures and e.ventures, announced Monday that it raised $130 million for its inaugural early-stage fund.

This announcement comes just days after BV Capital was rebranded as e.ventures.

Redpoint, founded in 1999, is a technology-focused venture capital and growth equity investment firm with over $3 billion in capital under management. Redpoint focuses on investing globally in technology ventures across the Internet, digital media, mobile, and enterprise sectors to accelerate growth and build industry defining companies. Its partners have been involved in 41 IPOs and 66 upside acquisitions. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA with offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai, China.

E.Ventures, founded in 1998, invests out of dedicated funds in five geographies: the US, Europe, Russia, China/Japan and Latin America.

Redpoint e.ventures plans to use the money to continue supporting Brazilian startups and help entrepreneurs across Latin America create e-commerce, mobile, media, and cloud service companies.

Both Redpoint and e.ventures are based in the Bay Area and have been investing in technology companies for around 15 years. The Sao Paulo fund is the most recent addition to e.ventures’ roster of nine.

Brazil has grown to become a hot tech opportunity as the rapidly growing middle class leapfrogs online and into the mobile ecosphere, more opportunity for infrastructure and data planning pop up with fewer competitors.

Redpoint e.ventures will focus on seed rounds through second rounds of institutional investment.

The fund is run by Brazilian-based founding partners Yann de Vries and Anderson Thees and is set to make roughly 15-20 investments over its lifespan.

While the Brazilian regulatory system is far more challenging than in the US, recruiting for jobs in Brazil is a piece of cake compared to tech-dense cities like San Jose, San Francisco and Boston.

"This is why we're making the long-term commitment to the country's entrepreneurs with a significant and focused local fund. Our unique platform will serve to build bridges with Silicon Valley and other key markets such as Europe and China who are all seeking new growth opportunities in Brazil," said Anderson Thees, the other co-founder of Redpoint e.ventures, in a statement.

Previously, Brazil has lacked the capital to build out a large numbers of start-ups, but this fund has already made investments in an online travel agency called ViajaNet, a consumer-Internet platform Grupo Xango, a social-media marketing company 55Social and an online retailer Shoes4you.